Right-to-Work and the Mackinac Center

Touting labor freedom for 25 years

Michigan lawmakers are edging closer to granting workers the freedom to choose their workplace destiny through a right-to-work law, which prohibits employers from requiring union dues or fee payments as a condition of employment.

This may be a classic example of the Overton Window of what's politically possible moving in the proper direction. Mackinac Center experts have been pushing that window toward right-to-work since 1990, over the years producing a wealth of information on the issue that is more relevant now than ever. That research extends to areas including economic development, migration, changes in wages and more.

Type right-to-work into our website’s search engine and it will return 514 articles, blog posts, special essays and news coverage generated by Mackinac Center analysts. One of those 500-plus articles is a 1997 interview with Robert Hunter, then the Center’s director of labor policy. Hunter predicted that Michigan would become a right-to-work state, saying, "Michigan will become, within a decade, a right-to-work state. It's a goal that all workers who support a prosperous economy, union accountability, and individual liberty should work toward."

It is time to let workers be free to choose the best form of representation they want. There is a mountain of evidence to show that right-to-work helps the employees, business owner, job seekers and the economy.

Michigan could use a big dose of help in each of these categories.

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The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is a nonprofit institute that advances the principles of free markets and limited government. Through our research and education programs, we challenge government overreach and advocate for free-market approach to public policy that frees people to realize their potential and dreams.

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